ann mallekhttp://www.readthehook.com/taxonomy/term/2922/all
enRoad kill: VDOT spraying ignites controversy http://www.readthehook.com/109969/road-kill-vdot-spraying-ignites-controversy
<p>The controversy over the Virginia Department of Transportation’s plan to spray herbicide on Albemarle County roadsides continues to churn as the spraying dates— August 26 and 27— loom closer. Leading the fight against the chemical herbicides is Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Ann Mallek, who is pushing county residents to opt out, citing a lack of research into the chemicals used and their possible adverse effects on human health and the environment.</p>
<p>“The chemical, Krenite S, is designed for remote places and industrial roadways and timber properties where they want to kill any competing brush,” says Mallek. “[VDOT] is unwilling to mow the branches on the side of the road anymore because it costs too much and decided to spray poison all over the place instead.”</p>
<p>Mallek was alerted to the use of roadside herbicide spraying last summer when a constituent called her, concerned that a VDOT truck was spraying something on Sugar Hollow Road, where he owned land, and also near the Moormans River. The driver of the truck allegedly told the landowner that he was spraying Roundup to kill mosquitoes.</p>
<p>“That was a big red flag to me," says Mallek. "I don’t know why the driver said that, but it was concerning because Roundup is for plants, not mosquitoes. And it was right by the river."</p>
<p>Mallek tried to get answers about the incident from VDOT, which, she says, ignored her for six weeks until the contract was complete, then responded saying that for citizens to receive notification about herbicide spraying, all she had to do was ask. Frustrated, Mallek requested an investigation by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services into the qualifications and behavior of the truck drivers conducting the spraying, but, she says, after several months, investigators concluded that the drivers had acted according to regulations. Though Mallek disagrees with the finding that the drivers had done nothing wrong, she says there was one positive outcome from the situation.&nbsp;</p>
<p>“The result of this exchange was that citizens would receive notice [of spraying] and be allowed to opt out,” Mallek says. The resolution mandating that citizens be notified of all spraying was passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors last fall. In accordance with the resolution, VDOT announced their plans to spray this summer via press release on July 26.</p>
<p>With this summer’s herbicide spraying just around the corner, Mallek is hoping that residents along the spray route will&nbsp;decide to opt out. VDOT will mark land designated "opt-out" with small red reflective signs signaling the contractor to stop spraying. &nbsp;</p>
<p>While Mallek sees the opt-out option as a step in the right direction, she'd like the herbicide spraying eliminated entirely. But Lou Hatter, a spokesperson for VDOT, says the worry over the safety of the herbicide is unnecessary.</p>
<p>“This is a federally approved product; it’s been used in accordance with all the label directions, and it is being applied by certified herbicide applicators," he says, noting that VDOT contractors "follow all policy and label requirements. It is something that has been done across Virginia for many years.”</p>
<p>In an email exchange between Mallek and Joel DeNunzio, the residency administrator of the VDOT Charlottesville residency, DeNunzio also vouches for the safety of the herbicide and competency of the herbicide applicators.</p>
<p>“Krenite S is not to be applied to food or feed crops," DeNunzio wrote. "The contractor is directed to cut the sprayer off when crossing streams or near enough to a pond or crop to actually spray it.”</p>
<p>According to the product label warning, land on which Krenite S has been sprayed can not be used for food growing until a year after treatment.</p>
<p>The email also sheds some light on why spraying herbicide is preferable to manual trimming— at least from a budget standpoint. According to DeNunzio, the cost of brush spraying one mile of highway shoulder is $195, while the cost of mechanical cutting is $1,025.</p>
<p>Mallek, however, isn't swayed by the estimated expense.</p>
<p>“I think they could trim more significantly with the machines and do it less frequently," she says. "Also the cost [VDOT] is giving doesn't take into consideration possible damages or the real costs for the water and people potentially affected," Mallek says. "There is zero data about use around people."</p>
<p>While Mallek may be the most vocal opponent of spraying, she is not alone. She says several county residents have already told her that they have or plan to opt out of the herbicide spray on their properties. And even people who don't own land along the spray routes are concerned. Betty Mooney, a city resident and avid gardener and birdwatcher, is worried about the effect the herbicide may have on the ecosystem.</p>
<p>“This spraying could kill our honey bee population,” Mooney says, citing a study by University of Maryland and federal agriculture researchers that was reported in the <em>Baltimore Sun</em> on July 26. “It’s important that our community know about this and try to minimize it because it affects all of us.”</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/109969/road-kill-vdot-spraying-ignites-controversy#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedann mallekherbicideKrenite SvdotNewsThu, 08 Aug 2013 17:09:02 +0000Laura Wagner109969 at http://www.readthehook.comPeople to watchhttp://www.readthehook.com/109901/people-watch
<p>City</p>
<p><strong><a class="colorbox" href="/files/images/field_images/cover-dem-kristin-szakos-head.jpg"><img class="fid26122 imagecache-200px_wide" src="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/200px_wide/images/field_images/cover-dem-kristin-szakos-head.jpg" border="0" /></a> Kristin Szakos:</strong> While professionally she's been a reporter/writer/translator, community organizing has always been close to the vice mayor's heart— she's written two books about it and her husband runs Virginia Organizing. Early on, she led the local campaign of another community organizer, Barack Obama, and her <a href="http://kristinforcouncil.org/">website photo of the president</a> is not the standard grip-and-grin, but one in which it looks like he actually knows her. Szakos ran for City Council in 2009 and has implemented the popular town hall meetings that take City Council out to the neighborhoods. She's running for council again, and if she's elected, odds are pretty good that she's going to be Charlottesville's next mayor. Pet peeve: Civil War monuments.</p>
<p><strong><a class="colorbox" href="/files/images/field_images/cover-tomtom-beyer.jpg"><img class="fid25376 imagecache-200px_wide" src="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/200px_wide/images/field_images/cover-tomtom-beyer.jpg" style="float: right;" border="0" /></a> Paul Beyer:</strong> When we first heard of the young VP at a local construction company that bears his family name in 2011, he was a 29-year-old running for City Council, and he didn't get the Democratic nomination. Rather than just fading away, Beyer has launched something really cool: The Tom Tom Founder's Festival, an ambitious smorgasbord of music, art, and innovation that he sees as Charlottesville's answer to South by Southwest. In 2012 he debuted a month-long event that used unusual venues for music and included the first McGuffey block party. This year the festival was more tightly honed into a long, powerhouse weekend focused on innovation and supported by UVA's Darden School— and it had a good beat and was easy to dance to. Likes: good design in logos.</p>
<p><strong><a class="colorbox" href="/files/images/field_images/cover-dem-wes-bellamy3.jpg"><img class="fid26291 imagecache-200px_wide" src="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/200px_wide/images/field_images/cover-dem-wes-bellamy3.jpg" border="0" /></a> Wes Bellamy:</strong> Not that we're trying to focus only on people who've run for City Council, but that's how the 26-year-old county teacher garnered more widespread attention beyond his work with a youth mentoring/boxing program called H.Y.P.E.— Helping Young People Evolve. And we're not just talking about his arrest three weeks after announcing his campaign for not showing up in court, a matter that was a mix-up of traffic violations and misunderstandings straightened out before the primary. In any case, Bellamy would be remembered for his rare June 11 tie of 1,088 votes to get on the November ballot, barely losing to Bob Fenwick by five votes. Even without the nomination, we fully expect to hear more from Bellamy. Frequent fashion statement: a bowtie.</p>
<p>County</p>
<p><strong><a class="colorbox" href="/files/images/field_images/news-steve-sellers-crop.jpg"><img class="fid26902 imagecache-200px_wide" src="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/200px_wide/images/field_images/news-steve-sellers-crop.jpg" border="0" /></a> Steve Sellers:</strong> Only the fourth chief since the Albemarle County Police Department was formed in 1983, Sellers has been putting his mark on the agency since he started in 2011. He stresses integrity and ethics for his officers, and they're a lot more likely to get a ticket if they're involved in an accident. More seriously, he's had three officers fire their weapons in the past six months, including one fatal shooting, and takes the stance that there's no rush in letting the public know who the shooters are until all investigations are complete. Meanwhile he's lobbying for a firing range. He prefers to be called "colonel," so keep that in mind when talking to the chief. Pet peeve: embezzling.</p>
<p><strong><a class="colorbox" href="/files/images/field_images/cover-john-whitehead.jpg"><img class="fid22502 imagecache-200px_wide" src="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/200px_wide/images/field_images/cover-john-whitehead.jpg" style="float: right;" border="0" /></a> John Whitehead:</strong> The founder of the civil liberties organization, the Rutherford Institute, has been saying for years that America is developing into a police state, and with recent incidents here, such as the SWAT team arrest for two pot plants, or the ABC sting that put an ice-cream buying coed in jail, people are taking him a lot more seriously. Although he's a lawyer best known for representing people he believes are being oppressed by government (think Paula Jones), Whitehead started the well-regarded, now-defunct popular culture magazine <em>Gadfly</em>, and has been known to pen an article on the Beatles. His most recent book is, no surprise, <em>A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State. </em>Pet peeves: SWAT teams, zero-tolerance policies in schools.</p>
<p><strong><a class="colorbox" href="/files/images/field_images/cover-ann-mallek-crop.jpg"><img class="fid26907 imagecache-200px_wide" src="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/200px_wide/images/field_images/cover-ann-mallek-crop.jpg" border="0" /></a> Ann Mallek:</strong> The chair of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors is a farmer, so don't be surprised to hear her apologize for not returning a call because a cow was calving. She's a county native who has a firm, courteous manner in running the board meetings— yet she's not afraid to play hardball, which explains why she's serving her fourth year as chair in what has traditionally been a two-year gig, sort of a payback for the notorious so-called "midnight vote" by her Republican colleagues that resurrected the controversial Western 29 bypass in a rare parliamentary procedure that caught Mallek offguard. Likes: swing, square dancing.</p>
<p><em>Correction 8/2/2013: Steve Sellers is the fourth Albemarle police chief, not the third as originally reported.</em></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/109901/people-watch#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedann mallekjohn whiteheadKristin Szakospaul beyersteve sellerswes bellamyAnnual ManualWed, 17 Jul 2013 18:56:05 +0000Hook Staff109901 at http://www.readthehook.comChairman of the board: Fuhgeddaboudit when 29 bypass involvedhttp://www.readthehook.com/108991/board-tradition-forget-about-it-when-29-bypass-involved
<p>If tradition had been upheld on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, Duane Snow would be chairman. Instead, at its first meeting of the year, the usually decorous board got testy over election of the chairman&#8211; and who would hold the real position of power: a seat on the transportation-controlling <a href="http://www.tjpdc.org/transportation/index.asp">Metropolitan Planning Organization</a>.</p>
<p>Supervisor Ken Boyd accused his anti-29-bypass colleagues of "politicizing" the longstanding tradition of rotating the chair every two years and passing it on to the vice-chair. In this case, Snow would have succeeded Ann Mallek in 2012&#8211; if the wounds weren't still fresh over the notorious midnight vote that brought the 29 bypass roaring back to life.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="sidebar">
<h2>Related stories</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/91627/fast-track-western-bypass-shifts-overdrive">Fast track: Western Bypass shifts into overdrive</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/107575/last-chance-hundreds-attend-western-29-bypass-forum">Last chance? Hundreds attend Western 29 Bypass forum</a></p>
<h1 class="title"></h1>
</div>
<p>"This is pretty much a rerun of last year," said Supervisor Dennis Rooker, who made it clear at the January 9 meeting the only way Snow would get a majority vote for board chair would be if he gave up his seat on the MPO.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Republican supes Boyd, Snow, and Rodney Thomas, who is Albemarle's other rep on the MPO, favor the bypass; independent Rooker and Dems Mallek and Christopher Dumler don't. The Board of Supervisors had long opposed the 6.2-mile road until a former supervisor changed his position in a June 8, 2011, midnight vote and paved the way for the resurrection of the bypass.</p>
<p>"I think there's some hard feelings for Lindsay Dorrier's changed vote," says Snow.</p>
<p>"Being chairman is ceremonial," explains Snow. "You can't make policy. Whereas the MPO has options to get things done in the community that need to be done." And the five-person regional board can greenlight transportation projects like the 29 bypass.</p>
<p>When he ran for election in 2009, says Snow, he was told no new roads had been built in Albemarle in 30 years, including BOS-approved projects like the Hillsdale Connector and widening the bottleneck on U.S. 29 north, where it drops to two lanes.</p>
<p>"We've had these projects, but there was no money," says Snow. "If we supported the bypass, these other things would be funded. That's why being on the MPO is so important. If you have someone on it who wants to kill the bypass, these other projects would die, too."</p>
<p>Snow notes that Rooker served on the MPO for 10 years, and when Snow was elected to the board, they flipped a coin for the position. Rooker won and stayed on the MPO for an additional year, then turned the position over to Snow. At that time, the BOS was split 3-3 on the bypass&#8211; until Dorrier changed his vote.</p>
<p>Ann Mallek, who by default becomes the board's longest serving chair in recent history as she enters her fourth year, is unrepentant about tying the chairmanship to an MPO seat. "The MPO decides what's going to be done with federal funds," she says. "That makes it an important position."</p>
<p>As for the custom of serving as chair for two years then stepping aside, she points out another tradition: Supporting the Board of Supervisors' 20 years of opposition to the bypass.</p>
<p>"Dennis was on the MPO for 10 years, but he went along with the board's position," she says. "[Snow and Thomas] went off on their own to talk to the secretary of transportation&#8211; the opposite of the board's position."</p>
<p>Mallek says she asked Snow for his preference&#8211; the chair or the MPO seat&#8211; and he chose the MPO. And with the board's bitter 3-3 split on the bypass spilling over, Snow will remain on the MPO indefinitely, assuming he's reelected to his Samuel Miller District seat in November.</p>
<p>"We work very well on most issues," says Mallek. "We clearly don't find any middle ground on this bypass issue. That's why I've drawn a line in the sand."</p>
<p>"We get along well, we play well together," agrees Snow. "That was different on Wednesday. It was politics at its worst. It was like children."</p>
<p>Despite being twice denied the chairmanship, says Snow, "I don't hold a grudge and I don't feel cheated. I'm not crying."</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/108991/board-tradition-forget-about-it-when-29-bypass-involved#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedAlbmarle Board of Supervisorsann mallekdennis rookerduane snowken boydwestern bypassNewsMon, 14 Jan 2013 16:42:27 +0000lisa108991 at http://www.readthehook.comFines unleashed: Albemarle criminalizes owners of roaming dogshttp://www.readthehook.com/105157/unleashed-albemarle-criminalizes-owners-roaming-dogs
<p>Albemarle holds its rural character dear, but anyone thinking about unleashing a bounding hound or letting Rover live up to his name may want to rethink the wisdom of such now-illegal actions. In June, the county started issuing criminal charges to the owners of dogs running loose off their property.</p>
<p>The county's residential areas already had a leash law, but in April the Board of Supervisors heard from elderly people allegedly terrorized by unruly curs when heading out to get the mail and from citizens who said they had to carry a big stick just to venture out the door. The Supervisors voted 5-1 to make this a class four misdemeanor in the rural areas, and a violation can bring a fine up to $250.</p>
<p>Supervisor Ann Mallek says she received "numerous" calls in the past year&#8211; she estimates around 30&#8211; from people claiming intimidation from free-range dogs and who found calling Animal Control offered little remedy.</p>
<p>"Elderly people can't get their mail because two 80-pound dogs can knock them down," says Mallek. "We don't want to wait until someone is killed."</p>
<p>The new ordinance took effect June 1. By the end of the following month, the county issued 16 summonses for dogs running at large, according to Albemarle police Sergeant Darrell Byers.</p>
<p>For the fiscal year ending June 30, Albemarle police logged 358 incidents of dogs running at large and 113 dog bites&#8211; although Byers cautions that many of the bites came from pets chomping on their owners.</p>
<p>Dogs engaged in hunting are exempt. Byers also points out that while it's popularly described as a leash law, dogs may still roam untethered when under their owner's voice control.</p>
<p>"It's when they go on the property of others," says Byers, who notes that citizens don't have to haul off the dogs themselves, but instead can call Animal Control officers, which will take errant canines to the SPCA. And any citizen who witnesses a roaming dog can also go to a magistrate and swear out a summons.</p>
<p>In late July, a pet Jack Russell terrier absconded from the electric-fenced yard of Bloomfield Road resident Charles Almy. Someone down the street reported it, and when Almy went to the SPCA to bail out Cheerio, he found himself with a summons.</p>
<p>Almy says he'd like to think a neighbor would give him a call if the dog got loose, but he confesses his phone number wasn't on the dog's collar. It is now.</p>
<p>"It prompted me to make sure the county license for each dog and the rabies shots for each dog were up to date," he adds.</p>
<p>While Almy lives on nine acres, he acknowledges that the county has grown to become less rural.</p>
<p>"It's a sign of the times&#8211; more people live in the county, and we've got to deal with each other," says Almy.</p>
<p>"I don't think the rural areas need a leash law," says Supervisor Rodney Thomas, who cast the only vote against the new ordinance, which he considers an unnecessary burden on citizens and officials&#8211; including the county's four Animal Control officers. "The majority of emails I got were against it."</p>
<p>Eastern Albemarle resident Janet Martin grounds her ordinance abhorrence in the land. She says dogs play a key role in rural life by protecting farm owners and controlling such agricultural pests as groundhogs, skunks, and deer.</p>
<p>"If a dog can't run on a farm," says Martin, "why have them?"</p>
<p>A former resident of New York City (who pities the plight of apartment-bound pooches), Martin says most of her Keswick-area neighbors have been understanding about any straying by her four German shorthaired pointers and one foxhound. But one relative newcomer has complained, so she's had to make adjustments.</p>
<p>"That's not in the spirit of the country," says Martin.</p>
<p>Supervisor Mallek, however, says she's gotten thanks from some of the formerly fearful citizens now strolling safely in the rural area and comforted by the idea they can pick up a phone to report neighbors who previously wouldn't control their dogs.</p>
<p>"They said it's so great they could call," says Mallek, adding that all enforcement is limited to following up complaints. "We are not dispatching the dog Gestapo."</p>
<p><em>Updated with hunting exemption.</em></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/105157/unleashed-albemarle-criminalizes-owners-roaming-dogs#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedGovt/Politicsalbemarleann mallekleash laws for dogsrodney thomasNewsWed, 01 Aug 2012 21:01:35 +0000lisa105157 at http://www.readthehook.comGoodbye, dredging? Brown, Huja, Szakos opt for mega-damhttp://www.readthehook.com/65583/goodbye-dredging-brown-huja-szakos-opt-mega-dam
<!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><div class="captionLeftLandscape"><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/news-rwsa-davidbrown.jpg"></a><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/news-hujaszakos-i1.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-42818" title="news-hujaszakos-i1" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/news-hujaszakos-i1-325x264.jpg" alt="news-hujaszakos-i1" height="264" width="325" /></a><strong>For months, Brown (inset) has been asserting that dredging won't supply enough water. Huja and Szakos now officially agree.</strong><br />
<small>FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER<br />
</small></div>
<p>
In September, Charlottesville City Council took a stand <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/09/21/dredge-time-council-to-save-reservoir-and-dam-when-ready/">in favor of dredging</a> to create more local water supply. But on Tuesday, January 18, the same day that one Albemarle Supervisor alleged that dredging might unleash potentially damaging fumes, City Council took a vote that appears to give Albemarle County and the Nature Conservancy what they want: a mega-reservoir to focus the local water supply in a massive lake that would hug Interstate 64.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Talking about the sacrifices made by previous generations, City Councilor Satyendra Huja&#8211;- long the issue's <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/09/16/suddenly-satyendra-huja-may-hold-key-to-regions-water-future/">acknowledged swing vote</a>&#8211;- gave an impassioned speech in favor of building a large dam in the Ragged Mountain Natural Area. A moment later, fellow Councilor David Brown made a motion favoring the construction of a 30-foot increase in the height of the existing dam, a project that might require clearing 160 acres of mature forest. Councilor Kristen Szakos followed suit with a thumbs-up of her own.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Mayor Dave Norris and fellow Councilor Holly Edwards voted against the dam plan. But what does it all mean?</p>
<p class="whitespace">"Ratepayers will have to pay a lot more," said a clearly perturbed Rebecca Quinn, a water resources engineer who has been speaking out in recent months, asserting that future water projections are based on outdated data.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"It may not be a steak and lobster plan," said Quinn recalling some language once employed about an even larger dam plan, "but it may be Chilean sea bass. It's still way more than what we need for 50 years."</p>
<p class="whitespace">Quinn pointed out that ever since the record-setting 2002 drought, consumers have dramatically curtailed their water use. Indeed, a recent <em>Hook</em> study of over a decade of figures found that total use has <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/27/down-22-percent-water-thrift-backfires/">fallen 22 percent</a> despite a nine percent climb in population and a 20 percent spike in the number of customers.</p>
<p class="whitespace">But Huja talked of the University of Virginia's recently-announced <a href="http://www2.wsls.com/news/2010/jul/12/uva_board_of_visitors_mulls_increased_tuition_enro-ar-360415/">discussion about expanding faster</a> than in the past, and he said that UVA demand will more than double from 1.5 to 3.1 million gallons per day. Already, UVA&#8211;- whose chief executive, Leonard Sandridge, <a href="http://cvilletomorrow.typepad.com/charlottesville_tomorrow_/2010/12/uva_water.html">declared his preference</a> for a new dam in December&#8211;- consumes 31% of the water sold by the City.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Huja said that he didn't know when he cast his pro-dredging vote in September that the Virginia Department of Water Quality would reject Mayor Norris' dredge-centric plan. Later in the meeting, Norris said the DEQ never rejected his plan. But Huja's calculus clearly fell on receptive ears of two colleagues.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Councilor David Brown has long alleged that UVA and Charlottesville have already achieved the bulk of their water-conservation efforts&#8211;- that the community has already plucked the "low-hanging fruit," as Brown once put it. In Council, Brown spoke of the 30-foot dam increase as a good compromise since Norris had suggested 13 feet while the Albemarle Supervisors pressed for 45 feet.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"You sold out the city," an outraged Dede Smith told the Council. "The only role you have to play is to defend the city, and you failed us."<a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/dedesmith-outrage.mp3"> [MP3-audio]</a></p>
<p class="whitespace">Another angry citizen, seeming to doubt Councilor Szakos' knowledge of the issue, asked how many years of water a 30-foot dam might provide. Szakos defended her vote as an attempt to bring closure to the debate and "a way to move forward."</p>
<p class="whitespace">"But I asked a specific question," the citizen, engineer Richard Lloyd, shouted from the gallery.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"You had your time; this is mine," responded Szakos, declining to answer the question.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Mayor Norris said after the vote that the majority's action renders dredging&#8211;- something he touted as a simple maintenance operation&#8211;- superfluous in the wake of such a massive reservoir.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"I'm disappointed," said Mayor Norris. "But that's democracy."</p>
<p class="whitespace">Reached the following day, Albemarle Board of Supervisors Chair <a href="http://www.cvillepedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Ann_Mallek">Ann Mallek</a>, pronouncing herself "very glad" about the vote, said she looks forward to "keeping the conversation going."</p>
<p class="whitespace">Mallek is the one who made the comment about methane as an environmentally unfriendly byproduct of dredging, and she says she has seen the gas bubbling up from a lake on her own property. While she doubts it swayed anyone on Council, Mallek says some of the environmental aspects of the dam plan haven't received fair treatment.</p>
<p class="whitespace">For instance, she says that newly-planted trees&#8211;- which will be part of multi-million-dollar effort to mitigate the clear-cut forest at Ragged Mountain&#8211;- actually sequester more carbon than "older trees that are just hanging out."</p>
<p class="whitespace">Mallek says she hopes that Council's vote for a 30-foot dam gets a little tweaking toward her goal of a still-higher dam. "It's still very sensible," she says, "to do the 42-foot construction even if only filling it 30 feet."</p>
<p class="whitespace">Next steps in the quest for a new reservoir, Mallek says, include obtaining updated data on the I-64 embankments and deciding between a concrete or earthen dam. Another looming decision involves allocating costs between Charlottesville and Albemarle water consumers. Already, County officials have <a href="http://cvilletomorrow.typepad.com/charlottesville_tomorrow_/2010/10/earthen-dam-design.html">committed their citizens to paying nearly a million dollars</a> for the design of an earthen dam.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"I don't want any City residents to feel," says Mallek, "like they're paying for growth in the County."</p>
<p class="whitespace">-<em>&#8211;updated 2:21pm Wednesday, January 19 with Mallek comments and again at 3:45pm with Huja's<br />
</em></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/65583/goodbye-dredging-brown-huja-szakos-opt-mega-dam#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedInfrastructureann mallekDave NorrisdredgingWed, 19 Jan 2011 03:33:51 +0000hawes65583 at http://www.readthehook.com